Essentials of Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2

Kevin Siegel, President, IconLogic, Inc.

This one-day online workshop provides a high-level introduction to the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2 (TCS), a complete solution for authoring, managing and publishing technical information and training content in multiple formats and languages. The suite combines five powerful programs:

• Adobe Acrobat 9
• Adobe FrameMaker 9
• Adobe RoboHelp 8
• Adobe Captivate 4
• Adobe PhotoShop CS4

Why is the Technical Communication Suite so cool? Let’s walk through a typical scenario a learning professional or instructional designer might encounter using the TechComm Suite:

For the first time, you can author your technical content in Adobe FrameMaker (instead of Microsoft Word) and, rather than import the FrameMaker content into Adobe RoboHelp, you can link the FrameMaker content into a RoboHelp project by reference. Once linked together, the RoboHelp project and FrameMaker document(s) communicate with each other. All you’d need to do to update both your FrameMaker and RoboHelp content is make changes in FrameMaker and, back in RoboHelp, perform an Update.

You can also import Adobe Captivate projects into the FrameMaker document. If you create a PDF out of the print document, the interactivity is retained, making your PDF highly interactive. And of course, since the suite applications are integrated, you can edit the imported Captivate project from within FrameMaker, make changes in Captivate and, when you exit Captivate, the edited project is republished and updated in FrameMaker.

Learning Objectives

After this workshop, participants will be able to:

·         Explain the benefits of the Adobe Technical Communication Suite to design learning programs

·         Make the case for using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite to support cross-functional roles among technical production teams

·         Avoid redundancy and frustration while creating technical documentation in the age of immediacy

·         Navigate the Adobe Technical Communication Suite workflow.

During the workshop, participants will be introduced to several features and functions of Adobe RoboHelp, FrameMaker, and Captivate. The workshop will demonstrate how these separate applications integrate to support a fluid, dynamic design and publishing process. Specifically, participants will view the following functions:  

Adobe RoboHelp

• Generate FlashHelp
• Create a WebHelp Project
• Import an HTML File
• Import a Word Document
• Import a FrameMaker Document
• Rename Topic Titles
• Create Project Folders
• Auto-Create a TOC
• Cascading Style Sheets
• Apply a Style Sheet to a Topic
• Apply Styles to Selected Paragraphs
• Use Spell Check

Adobe Captivate

• Set the Recording Type and Options
• Record a Captivate Demonstration
• Recording Custom Captivate Lessons
• Create a Custom Recording
• Insert and Edit Text Captions
• Change Text Caption Properties
• View the Timeline
• Change a Slide’s Display Time
• Change Timeline View Settings
• Use the Timeline to Set Text Caption Display Times
• Show/Hide Timeline Objects
• Use Options to Control Object Timing
• Edit a Slide and Object Display Times
• Insert a Text Button
• Set a Button’s Options
• Apply a BMP Playbar
• Apply a Skin
• Edit and Save a Skin
• Loading Screens
• Add a Loading Screen
• Publishing
• Publish a Flash (SWF) Lesson

Adobe FrameMaker

• Set the FrameMaker Interface
• Explore a FrameMaker Book
• Explore FrameMaker’s Paragraph Numbering Power
• Update and Generate
• Paragraph Formats
• Create a New FrameMaker Document
• Import Text
• Change Document Layout Settings
• Edit an Existing Format
• Change the Side Head Pagination
• Create an Autonumber Format
• Create a Series Label
• Add Text to a Master Page Header
• Add Running Headers
• Remove Word Text Formatting
• Apply Word Styles to Paragraphs
• Import a Word Document

Integration

• Publish a Captivate Project
• Import a Published Captivate SWF Into FrameMaker
• Edit a Captivate Project Through FrameMaker
• Create an Interactive PDF
• Create a New RoboHelp Project
• Attach a CSS to a Topic
• Link a FrameMaker Book Into a RoboHelp Project
• Edit the FrameMaker Document Settings
• Map Styles
• Control Topic Pagination
• Edit FrameMaker Content
• Add an Associated TOC and Index
• Assign a TOC and Index to a RoboHelp Layout.

Note: To participate in this ASTD online workshop, you will need the following software and hardware:

·         Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2

·         1.8 GHz or faster processor

·         Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or Windows Vista® with Service Pack 1 (certified for 32-bit editions)

·         1GB of RAM (2GB recommended)

·         6.5GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)

·         1,024x768 display (1,280x800 recommended) with 16-bit video card

·         Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0

·         Some features in Adobe Bridge rely on a DirectX 9–capable graphics card with at least 64MB of VRAM

·         DVD-ROM drive

·         QuickTime 7.4.5 software required for multimedia features

Note: the Adobe Technical Communication Suite is NOT provided with the registration fee; however, a trial version of the suite can be downloaded directly from Adobe. Because of the large file size, participants must download the trial version at least one day in advance of the workshop.

About the Facilitator:

Kevin A. Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written more than 100 step-by-step computer training books, including Essentials of Adobe Captivate 3, Essentials of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, Essentials of QuarkXPress 7, Accelerated QuarkXPress 6, Essentials of Adobe InDesign CS3, Essentials of Adobe PageMaker 7 and Essentials of Adobe RoboHelp 7 HTML. Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has more than 23 years experience as a print publisher and technical writer. He is a certified technical trainer, has been a classroom instructor for more than 15 years, and is a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions. Kevin holds multiple certifications from companies such as Adobe and the CompTIA.